Rep. David Trone, the Total Wine & More co-founder who has self-funded more than any House candidate in American history, announced Thursday that he was joining next year’s Democratic primary to succeed Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin. While Trone griped during his competitive 2022 battle that members of his party “have absolutely gone too far to the left,” he launched his statewide bid by describing himself as a pragmatic liberal. “All of us Democrats will be running as super progressive,” he told The Washington Post. “The difference is going to be who can get stuff done, and who can keep this seat Democrat?”
Trone, who emphasized the opioid crisis in his launch video, joins a nomination contest in a dark blue state that already includes Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando and will almost certainly grow before long: Time Magazine’s Eric Cortellessa reported Thursday that insiders expect Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks to announce “in the coming days.” Both Jawando and Alsobrooks would be the Old Line State’s first Black senator, while Alsobrooks would additionally be the second woman to hold this position after the trailblazing Barbara Mikulski.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who recently finished a successful treatment for diffuse large B cell lymphoma, meanwhile says he’ll spend May considering his plans. Cortellessa adds that Jawando has privately told people that should Raskin seek a promotion, he’d campaign to replace him in the 8th Congressional District rather than compete against him. (Raskin beat both Trone and Jawando in the 2016 primary for the last version of the 8th.) Other Democrats could also run for the Senate, including Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, who hasn’t said anything yet about a timeline for deciding.
Anyone who does end up facing Trone will be going up against a congressman who has access to a vast amount of money. The congressman only said he’d deploy “a lot” of his personal wealth when asked, though Cortellessa relays that Trone informed his allies he’d throw down as much as $50 million. The candidate himself argued that his ability to self-fund should be a plus to voters, saying, “I’ve committed not to take money from PACs, not to take money from lobbyists.” He also declared that his resources would give him the ability to respond in a general election if former Gov. Larry Hogan runs. While the Republican said this week he has “no interest” in being in the Senate, the congressman told the Post he didn’t believe this meant he wouldn’t get in after all.
Trone, who co-founded and still co-owns Total Wine & More along with his brother, first sought office in 2016 when he campaigned to succeed Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who was waging his own successful bid for Mikulski’s open Senate seat, for the Montgomery County-based 8th District. Trone poured $13.4 million of his own money into that bid, which, even adjusting for inflation, was the most any House candidate had ever self-funded, but it still wasn’t enough. Raskin, a state senator who had extensive labor support and a following with local progressives, was badly outspent but still had enough to get his message out, and he prevailed 34-27.
The following year, Trone initially said he was “focused very heavily” on a campaign for county executive, but he unexpectedly got the chance to seek the neighboring 6th District when three-term Rep. John Delaney retired to focus on a presidential bid. Trone in 2018 threw down $11.4 million to secure the Democratic nod in another heavily blue district, and this time that investment resulted in a 40-31 victory over Del. Aruna Miller. The Democratic nominee, after contributing $4.5 million for the general election, once again set the record for most self-funding ever in a House campaign, and he easily won with 59%. The incumbent also put down $3 million in 2020 and took an identical 59% against state Sen. Neil Parrott.
The congressman, however, had a far tougher 2022 rematch with Pattott after the new map dropped Joe Biden’s margin of victory from 61-38 to only 54-44. Trone spent close to $10 million of his money, which OpenSecrets says once again made him the top House self-funder of the year. That contest hardly stretched his resources, though, as Trone and his brother also sent a total of $10.7 million to promote a ballot initiative in Colorado that would have eventually allowed liquor retailers to operate an unlimited number of locations in the state. Trone ultimately won reelection 55-45 even as voters in the Centennial State overwhelmingly rejected the measure he was funding.
P.S. While Trone has repeatedly poured in more of his own cash than any other House candidate ever, he has a ways to go before he matches the $64 million that Florida Republican Rick Scott set in his victorious 2018 Senate bid. And even Trone isn’t going to come close to hitting the $1 billion that Michael Bloomberg expended in his failed 2020 presidential race.
2023 may be an off-year, but that just means Virginia takes its traditional place as one of the key states to watch. With odd-year state elections, Virginia has often been a key bellwether for the rest of the country and this year is no different. Both the State Senate and the General Assembly are up and both chambers could be won by either party. Daily Kos Elections Editor Jeff Singer joins us to preview the key races in both the June primary and the fall general election.